The following is a compilation of all the race and class options found in the five Plane Shift articles, for any campaign in which they might be legal. There are some phenomenal options in here as well as some very flavourful ones.
This guide will use the following rating scheme:
Gold: The absolute best
Skyblue: Excellent
Blue: Good
Black: Okay
Purple: Subpar
Red: Awful or strictly outclassed
Green: A special rating that denoted something identical to an option from the PHB or elsewhere. For example, the Amonkhet human is green because it’s the same as the PHB variant human.
Plane shift Amonkhet
Races:
Human It’s the variant human from the PHB. It’s very good. You already knew that.
Iblis-headed Aven Hands down the best wizard race in the game with +1 Int, +2 Dex, and at-will flight. Kefnet’s blessing is nice but not at all needed.
Hawk-headed Aven A better aarakroka. +2 Dex and +2 Wis, flight, and free perception proficiency. Can also attack from long range without disadvantage.
Khenra +1 Strength and +2 Dex are fine stat bumps, 5 extra feet of movement never hurt, but weapon proficiency is probably wasted. The most interesting feature here is Khenra Twin. I feel like you’re better off with the frighten immunity you get from your twin being dead. You’d need your twin to be another member of your party before remotely considering the other option.
Minotaur It’s a half-orc, but you’re trading your darkvision for a natural weapon that deals 1d6. Not being able to be disarmed is nice, but I think I’d rather see in the dark.
Naga Con+Int is good stats for wizards and basically no other class. Bonus action for +5 speed is ok. Natural weapons rely on Strength, which is a real problem, but constrict is fantastic. If you hit, you automatically grapple AND restrain your target. Try constricting someone and then hitting them with disintegrate. Flat-out immunity to poison is great, proficiency with the poisoner’s kit is alright. I’d rate them skyblue as wizards if there wasn’t a far better option on the same plane
New Cleric domains:
(shout-out to Mellored for writing the cleric guide upon which I based these ratings, I am no expert on clerics)
Solidarity It’s the life domain, with two changes: you lose disciple of life and instead gain the ability to make a bonus action attack whenever you spend your action to help an ally’s attack, and you get War God’s blessing at level 6. Overall I’m unimpressed.
Strength A free druid cantrip would be a lot better if this entire domain weren’t focused on using strength, since shillelagh is a lot less useful to you. Everything else is almost identical to the war domain, except the accuracy abilities only work with strength. The only saving grace are some decent domain spells (haste, destructive wave)
Ambition It’s trickery domain, but you trade the ability to give someone else stealth for warding flare from light domain, and you trade divine strike for potent cantrip. However, the domain spells are substantially worse (no polymorph)
Zeal A phenomenal domain. Channel divinity to maximize the power of a fire or thunder spell works amazingly with fireball (which you get as a domain spell). That’s a 48 damage AOE at level 5. The rest of your spell list is no slouch either, with Haste, Freedom of Movement, and Destructive Wave being particularly strong. You get the War cleric’s bonus action attacks, a free 10 foot push effect on all your thunder attacks, divine strike, and a new capstone ability called Blaze of glory, which is a bit situational (0 hit points is not where a cleric wants to be), but look at that damage! It’s an extra 55 on average, plus advantage on the attack, plus the attack’s damage. You can also use your consuming fervor to maximize the fire damage (to 50, up from an average of 27.5)
Plane Shift Innistrad
Races (In Innistrad, all playable races are subraces of human. ):
Gavony It’s the standard human. +1 to all your stats. Tolerable for any class.
Kessig Dexterity and Wisdom bumps are both good. You get a free skill (good) but that skill is survival (bad). 40-foot movement is faster than any race in the game, but the real draw here is Spring Attack: not provoking opportunity attacks when you make a melee attack is a nice benefit. This race looks like phenomenal monk material.
Nephalia Unless you want four tools, this is strictly outclassed by the variant human, who can have +1 to any two stats instead of just Int and Cha, and can get up to four skills with the skilled feat and their racial bonus skill.
Stensia Str and Con bumps are nice, Intimidation is okay, but the real draw here is Tough. 2 extra HP + 2 per level is a significant increase. Pity the stats don’t match the types of classes that most need the extra hit points, but a stensian human would make a solid Str-based melee class.
Plane Shift Ixalan
Races:
Human Identical to the PHB human
Green Merfolk +1 Cha and +2 Wis are a bit awkward, since no class really wants both those stats. Mask of the wild is copied from wood elf but a little worse here since you have no Dex bonus. Free druid Cantrip is nice (shillelagh and guidance are both great). Aquatic ranges from extremely useful to utterly useless.
Blue Merfolk I was very tempted to rate the blue merfolk blue, but sadly they don’t offer enough. +1 Cha and +2 Int are again not very synergistic stats, two skill proficiencies would be a lot better if they weren’t Nature and History. Free wizard cantrip can get you either of the blade spells (booming blade or green-flame blade) but I think I’d rather just be a high elf.
Vampire Again with the Wisdom and Charisma bonuses. Necrotic resistance is nice, bloodthirst is okay at level one but never scales. Rush of vitality is good but needing to drink someone’s blood is a big hoop to jump through. Vampires get an exclusive feat that gives them 30-foot flight for 10 minutes, which is pretty good, but winged tieflings exist, and they can do it at-will.
Orc a half-orc without the racial feat support.
Goblin +2 dex, darkvision, 25-foot climbing, and nothing else, plus being small. Play any kind of elf instead.
Siren Almost strictly worse than winged tiefling, saved from a red rating because at-will flight at level 1 is just that good.
Plane Shift Kaladesh
Races:
Aetherborn They’re like half-elves, except they get one less skill, no feat support, and they trade fey ancestry for necrotic resistance. Having a lifespan of “no more than a few years” could also be problematic depending on the campaign. The gifted option is awful, 1d6 damage isn’t worth anything past the first few levels and this never scales. Plus, you start to die if you don’t do it once per week.
Dwarf Strictly better hill dwarves, thanks to artisan’s expertise.
Elf Identical to the wood elf.
Human it’s odd that the only plane shift with new feats doesn’t offer the variant human, but okay. Standard human is fine.
Vedalken a solid wizard race with +2 int and +1 wis, the real draw here is vedalken cunning, a reskin of gnome cunning which is no less good here. Aether lore is situational. Compared to rock gnomes, you get lore, +5 movement speed and medium size in exchange for no tinker. That’s a trade I’ll take.
Sorcerous Origin: Pyromancer
Come on, they couldn’t give us +Cha to damage with fire spells? The features here largely revolve around ignoring fire resistance and immunity, which just isn’t common enough to justify the lack of extra damage. Heart of Fire is the storm sorcerer’s 6th level feature at level one, and it still isn’t good because a sorcerer shouldn’t be within 10 feet of multiple enemies, and one damage, which is all this will be until level 4, isn’t impactful enough. (Unlike the storm sorcerer, you also have no mobility power, making staying close to enemies riskier) Pyromancer’s fury is a feature that punishes attackers who hit you in melee, but you shouldn’t be in melee much with a class that has 1d6 hit dice. If I wanted to play Chandra Nalaar, I would play a Fire Dragon Sorcerer.
New Feats:
Quicksmithing It’s a worse Ritual Caster, plus the rock gnome’s tinker ability. Meh.
Servo Crafting Take Magic Initiate instead, to get the actual spell find familiar, on top of two cantrips. Being able to attack with your servo means nothing, as servos have +0 to hit and deal 1 damage.
Plane Shift Zendikar
Races:
Human Hey look, more standard humans.
Kor Halfling traits without being small, swap Charisma for Wisdom, two free skills. Solid.
Emeria Merfolk Cha and Wis isn’t great, but two free skills (persuasion and deception) and a free druid cantrip makes this merfolk better than its Ixalan cousin.
Ula Merfolk Cha and Int, Survival and Navigator’s tools, and a wizard cantrip. I’d play a high elf instead unless I knew I was in an aquatic campaign.
Cosi Merfolk More Cha and less Int, Dex-based skills for a race without +Dex, and a bard cantrip. They’re notable for being the only race in the game to get a bard cantrip as a racial feature, and vicious mockery isn’t an awful spell, but I’m still not going to rush to play one of these.
Vampire Almost strictly worse than the Ixalan Vampire, trading Wis for Int and losing the Dex save advantage and flight feat that Ixalan vampires get. They make better wizards but wizards don't want Cha and don't want to suck people's blood in melee
Goblin +2 Con as their only stat boost means whichever class they are they can’t get +3 mod at level 1, they’re small, they’re slow. They can pick between animal handling, thieves tools, and stealth advantage when trying to look like rocks.
Tajaru Elf +2 Wis and +1 Charisma, and two more free skills on top of keen senses. A Tajaru Elf Rogue can have proficiency in 9 skills at level 1.
Joraga Elf Like the wood elf, but instead of +2 Dex and +1 Wis, you get +2 Wis and +1 Dex. Still great.
Mul Daya Elf You thought you could go through an entire guide worth of races without seeing sunlight sensitivity? So did I, but in the end the Mul Daya elf has to ruin it. They’re notable for their unique stats, +1 Strength and +2 Wis, and they get magic like Drow, including Hex as a racial spell, but sunlight sensitivity is such a hinderance that it just doesn’t matter. I’m giving them purple instead of red since they’d actually make good druids, sunlight sensitivity doesn’t work in beast form.
Thoughts, comments, and suggestions are appreciated.
This guide will use the following rating scheme:
Gold: The absolute best
Skyblue: Excellent
Blue: Good
Black: Okay
Purple: Subpar
Red: Awful or strictly outclassed
Green: A special rating that denoted something identical to an option from the PHB or elsewhere. For example, the Amonkhet human is green because it’s the same as the PHB variant human.
Plane shift Amonkhet
Races:
Human It’s the variant human from the PHB. It’s very good. You already knew that.
Iblis-headed Aven Hands down the best wizard race in the game with +1 Int, +2 Dex, and at-will flight. Kefnet’s blessing is nice but not at all needed.
Hawk-headed Aven A better aarakroka. +2 Dex and +2 Wis, flight, and free perception proficiency. Can also attack from long range without disadvantage.
Khenra +1 Strength and +2 Dex are fine stat bumps, 5 extra feet of movement never hurt, but weapon proficiency is probably wasted. The most interesting feature here is Khenra Twin. I feel like you’re better off with the frighten immunity you get from your twin being dead. You’d need your twin to be another member of your party before remotely considering the other option.
Minotaur It’s a half-orc, but you’re trading your darkvision for a natural weapon that deals 1d6. Not being able to be disarmed is nice, but I think I’d rather see in the dark.
Naga Con+Int is good stats for wizards and basically no other class. Bonus action for +5 speed is ok. Natural weapons rely on Strength, which is a real problem, but constrict is fantastic. If you hit, you automatically grapple AND restrain your target. Try constricting someone and then hitting them with disintegrate. Flat-out immunity to poison is great, proficiency with the poisoner’s kit is alright. I’d rate them skyblue as wizards if there wasn’t a far better option on the same plane
New Cleric domains:
(shout-out to Mellored for writing the cleric guide upon which I based these ratings, I am no expert on clerics)
Solidarity It’s the life domain, with two changes: you lose disciple of life and instead gain the ability to make a bonus action attack whenever you spend your action to help an ally’s attack, and you get War God’s blessing at level 6. Overall I’m unimpressed.
Strength A free druid cantrip would be a lot better if this entire domain weren’t focused on using strength, since shillelagh is a lot less useful to you. Everything else is almost identical to the war domain, except the accuracy abilities only work with strength. The only saving grace are some decent domain spells (haste, destructive wave)
Ambition It’s trickery domain, but you trade the ability to give someone else stealth for warding flare from light domain, and you trade divine strike for potent cantrip. However, the domain spells are substantially worse (no polymorph)
Zeal A phenomenal domain. Channel divinity to maximize the power of a fire or thunder spell works amazingly with fireball (which you get as a domain spell). That’s a 48 damage AOE at level 5. The rest of your spell list is no slouch either, with Haste, Freedom of Movement, and Destructive Wave being particularly strong. You get the War cleric’s bonus action attacks, a free 10 foot push effect on all your thunder attacks, divine strike, and a new capstone ability called Blaze of glory, which is a bit situational (0 hit points is not where a cleric wants to be), but look at that damage! It’s an extra 55 on average, plus advantage on the attack, plus the attack’s damage. You can also use your consuming fervor to maximize the fire damage (to 50, up from an average of 27.5)
Plane Shift Innistrad
Races (In Innistrad, all playable races are subraces of human. ):
Gavony It’s the standard human. +1 to all your stats. Tolerable for any class.
Kessig Dexterity and Wisdom bumps are both good. You get a free skill (good) but that skill is survival (bad). 40-foot movement is faster than any race in the game, but the real draw here is Spring Attack: not provoking opportunity attacks when you make a melee attack is a nice benefit. This race looks like phenomenal monk material.
Nephalia Unless you want four tools, this is strictly outclassed by the variant human, who can have +1 to any two stats instead of just Int and Cha, and can get up to four skills with the skilled feat and their racial bonus skill.
Stensia Str and Con bumps are nice, Intimidation is okay, but the real draw here is Tough. 2 extra HP + 2 per level is a significant increase. Pity the stats don’t match the types of classes that most need the extra hit points, but a stensian human would make a solid Str-based melee class.
Plane Shift Ixalan
Races:
Human Identical to the PHB human
Green Merfolk +1 Cha and +2 Wis are a bit awkward, since no class really wants both those stats. Mask of the wild is copied from wood elf but a little worse here since you have no Dex bonus. Free druid Cantrip is nice (shillelagh and guidance are both great). Aquatic ranges from extremely useful to utterly useless.
Blue Merfolk I was very tempted to rate the blue merfolk blue, but sadly they don’t offer enough. +1 Cha and +2 Int are again not very synergistic stats, two skill proficiencies would be a lot better if they weren’t Nature and History. Free wizard cantrip can get you either of the blade spells (booming blade or green-flame blade) but I think I’d rather just be a high elf.
Vampire Again with the Wisdom and Charisma bonuses. Necrotic resistance is nice, bloodthirst is okay at level one but never scales. Rush of vitality is good but needing to drink someone’s blood is a big hoop to jump through. Vampires get an exclusive feat that gives them 30-foot flight for 10 minutes, which is pretty good, but winged tieflings exist, and they can do it at-will.
Orc a half-orc without the racial feat support.
Goblin +2 dex, darkvision, 25-foot climbing, and nothing else, plus being small. Play any kind of elf instead.
Siren Almost strictly worse than winged tiefling, saved from a red rating because at-will flight at level 1 is just that good.
Plane Shift Kaladesh
Races:
Aetherborn They’re like half-elves, except they get one less skill, no feat support, and they trade fey ancestry for necrotic resistance. Having a lifespan of “no more than a few years” could also be problematic depending on the campaign. The gifted option is awful, 1d6 damage isn’t worth anything past the first few levels and this never scales. Plus, you start to die if you don’t do it once per week.
Dwarf Strictly better hill dwarves, thanks to artisan’s expertise.
Elf Identical to the wood elf.
Human it’s odd that the only plane shift with new feats doesn’t offer the variant human, but okay. Standard human is fine.
Vedalken a solid wizard race with +2 int and +1 wis, the real draw here is vedalken cunning, a reskin of gnome cunning which is no less good here. Aether lore is situational. Compared to rock gnomes, you get lore, +5 movement speed and medium size in exchange for no tinker. That’s a trade I’ll take.
Sorcerous Origin: Pyromancer
Come on, they couldn’t give us +Cha to damage with fire spells? The features here largely revolve around ignoring fire resistance and immunity, which just isn’t common enough to justify the lack of extra damage. Heart of Fire is the storm sorcerer’s 6th level feature at level one, and it still isn’t good because a sorcerer shouldn’t be within 10 feet of multiple enemies, and one damage, which is all this will be until level 4, isn’t impactful enough. (Unlike the storm sorcerer, you also have no mobility power, making staying close to enemies riskier) Pyromancer’s fury is a feature that punishes attackers who hit you in melee, but you shouldn’t be in melee much with a class that has 1d6 hit dice. If I wanted to play Chandra Nalaar, I would play a Fire Dragon Sorcerer.
New Feats:
Quicksmithing It’s a worse Ritual Caster, plus the rock gnome’s tinker ability. Meh.
Servo Crafting Take Magic Initiate instead, to get the actual spell find familiar, on top of two cantrips. Being able to attack with your servo means nothing, as servos have +0 to hit and deal 1 damage.
Plane Shift Zendikar
Races:
Human Hey look, more standard humans.
Kor Halfling traits without being small, swap Charisma for Wisdom, two free skills. Solid.
Emeria Merfolk Cha and Wis isn’t great, but two free skills (persuasion and deception) and a free druid cantrip makes this merfolk better than its Ixalan cousin.
Ula Merfolk Cha and Int, Survival and Navigator’s tools, and a wizard cantrip. I’d play a high elf instead unless I knew I was in an aquatic campaign.
Cosi Merfolk More Cha and less Int, Dex-based skills for a race without +Dex, and a bard cantrip. They’re notable for being the only race in the game to get a bard cantrip as a racial feature, and vicious mockery isn’t an awful spell, but I’m still not going to rush to play one of these.
Vampire Almost strictly worse than the Ixalan Vampire, trading Wis for Int and losing the Dex save advantage and flight feat that Ixalan vampires get. They make better wizards but wizards don't want Cha and don't want to suck people's blood in melee
Goblin +2 Con as their only stat boost means whichever class they are they can’t get +3 mod at level 1, they’re small, they’re slow. They can pick between animal handling, thieves tools, and stealth advantage when trying to look like rocks.
Tajaru Elf +2 Wis and +1 Charisma, and two more free skills on top of keen senses. A Tajaru Elf Rogue can have proficiency in 9 skills at level 1.
Joraga Elf Like the wood elf, but instead of +2 Dex and +1 Wis, you get +2 Wis and +1 Dex. Still great.
Mul Daya Elf You thought you could go through an entire guide worth of races without seeing sunlight sensitivity? So did I, but in the end the Mul Daya elf has to ruin it. They’re notable for their unique stats, +1 Strength and +2 Wis, and they get magic like Drow, including Hex as a racial spell, but sunlight sensitivity is such a hinderance that it just doesn’t matter. I’m giving them purple instead of red since they’d actually make good druids, sunlight sensitivity doesn’t work in beast form.
Thoughts, comments, and suggestions are appreciated.
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